African customary law: Its social and ideological function in South Africa

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented 13 October 1983The study of the terms and mode of application of African customary law in South Africa has generally been neglected both by lawyers and African Studies scholars. In the case of lawyers, there is little interest in a law potentially relevant to seventy per cent of the population - where that seventy per cent is for the most part unable to pay lawyers' fees. In the case of students of African studies, the segregated legal and judicial systems may seem of marginal consequence, in the light of the more serious disabilities that people experience through more patently repressive laws, such as those regulating influx control, resettlement, banishment etc., let alone laws concerning directly political activities. It would nevertheless be wrong, I shall try to show, to dismiss this area as unimportant or innocuous. This paper seeks to demonstrate how the special court and legal system set up to deal with civil cases between Africans, contributes ideologically, economically and socially, to the national oppression of the African people

RENDERING VISIBLE: The underground organisational experience of the ANC-led Alliance until 1976

Student Number : 0216658A - PhD thesis - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of HumanitiesThis thesis is a study of underground organisation from the 1950s until 1976, though it also draws on material prior to and after these periods. It delves into an area of social activity that has been relatively invisible in scholarship on South Africa and resistance history. The study considers the concept of underground operations. It is taken to include not only the place where the ‘final’ activities may have taken place, but those countries where cadres were trained or housed, even if this would normally be characterised as located in ‘exile’. It is ‘outside’, but it such activities are also treated as part of the underground phenomenon considered as a whole. At the level of historiography the thesis is a re-reading of early ANC underground, partly giving a different interpretation to existing literature, but also relying on the insights of oral informants. The establishment of the SACP underground is fleshed out through interview material, but the thesis challenges the notion that the Party controlled the ANC, arguing in contrast that the conditions of the alliance demanded limitations on SACP’s autonomy. In the period after Rivonia the conventional historiography speaks of a lull and an absence of the ANC and its allies. The thesis provides evidence to contradict this showing that while there may have been silence, there was never absence. It also probes the relationship between ANC and Black Consciousness, where it shows far more overlap than much of the existing literature has disclosed. The study is at once a historical narrative and also an attempt to characterise the social character of this area of study, the special features that go to make up clandestine organisaton. Within this characterisation of underground activity, the thesis also probes the gendered nature of these activities, the definite impact of concepts of masculinity and femininity within a conventionally male terrain. Related to these questions the thesis probes the relationship between the personal and organisational, both at the level of individual decision-making and notions of love and realising emotions. The chapter on gender examines the denial of manhood to African men and considers ANC masculinities and assertion of the need to regain manhood in that context. The thesis also examines the entry of women into the male world of the army and underground, explaining many of the difficulties and the countervailing efforts of women as well as certain men to assert the rights of women to equal participation. The chapter on the impact of revolutionary activity on the personal examines the subordination of individual judgement to the collective and in the personal sphere, notions of revolutionary love, found not only in South Africa but in most revolutionary struggles, where ‘love for the people’ tends to displace inter-personal love. The final chapter –by way of an epilogue- examines the outcomes of struggles after 1976, initiated by various forces including the underground organisation. In this period ANC hegemony begins to consolidate and the character of that hegemony is broken down into various components

An analysis of the influence exerted by the pharmacist and pharmacy assistant in the purchase decision of health and beauty aid products

[Introduction] The 1980s have ushered in an era of extreme competitive pressure for the modern business organisation. In previous times many business organisations have succeeded simply because of the excellence of their products, with little concern or attention being paid to the wants and needs of potential customers. As the business environment has become more competitive, however, the point of focus has changed. There is ample evidence which suggests a correlation between success in business and firms which have adopted a marketing-orientated philosophy of business. The evolution of marketing as a discipline has been hastened in recent times by the need of the firm to survive in the face of increasing competition. This "increasing attention" is occurring because of the realisation that sheer product excellence alone will not necessarily mean that the firm will succeed in establishing a group of satisfied customers in the long term. It is the adoption of the so-called "marketing concept" which provides the opportunity for the firm to develop a competitive edge which will more likely eventuate in success

Problems in Interpreting Unusually Large Burrows

Although marine burrows of unusually large dimensions have long been known in certain areas, they are probably much more widespread in the rock record than is generally recognized. Such burrows constitute a heterogeneous group, having little in common other than exceptional size. Yet their size alone unites them in difficulty of interpretation: e.g., densely spaced-dwelling burrows of combined dwelling-escape burrows as much as 12 cm in diameter and 5 m long; vertical dwelling burrows only 0.5 cm in diameter but up to 9 m long; possible escape structures as much as 24 cm in diameter and 3 m long, subsequently penetrated in some cases by secondary burrow-like structures. Numerous special problems are encountered in the study and interpretation of burrows of these extreme dimensions: (1) field exposure and accessibility, so that the full extent, or a large part, of the structures can be studied; (2) preservation of the burrows in continuity, not merely in places where they pass through certain beds or within concretion horizons; (3) the fossilization barrier ; our knowledge of comparable modern structures of similar dimensions or of the animals responsible for them is negligible; and (4) the possibility that certain of these unusual structures were formed by physical rather than organic processes; again, our criteria for comparisons are limited. The examples selected by us—from the Permian of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, the Cretaceous and Paleocene of northwestern Europe, and the Pleistocene of North Carolina—are intended primarily (1) to call additional attention to such intriguing structures, and (2) to illustrate some of the problems involved in interpreting their origin and function. Hopefully, future work will solve many of these problems

Optical and Near Infrared Study of the Cepheus E outflow, a very low excitation object

We present images and spectra of the Cepheus E (Cep E) region at both optical and infrared wavelengths. Only the brightest region of the southern lobe of the Cep E outflow reveals optical emission, suggesting that the extinction close to the outflow source plays an important r\^ole in the observed difference between the optical and IR morphologies. Cep E is a unique object since it provides a link between the spectroscopic properties of the optical Herbig-Haro (HH) objects and those of deeply embedded outflows.Comment: Accepted Astron. J., 8 files: paper, tables plus 6 figure

The H2 velocity structure of inner knots in HH 212: asymmetries and rotation

High-resolution R~50 000 long-slit spectroscopy of the inner knots of the highly symmetrical protostellar outflow HH 212 was obtained in the 1-0 S(1) line of H2 at 2.12 micron with a spatial resolution of ~0.45 arcsec. At the resulting velocity resolution of ~6 km s-1, multiple slit oriented observations of the northern first knot NK1 clearly show double-peaked line profiles consistent with either a radiative bow shock or dual (forward and reverse) shocks. In contrast, the velocity distribution of the southern first knot SK1 remains single-peaked, suggesting a significantly lower jet velocity and possibly a different density variation in the jet pulses in the southern flow compared to the northern flow. Comparison with a semi-empirical analytical model of bow shock emission allows us to constrain parameters such as the bow inclination to the line of sight, the bow shock and jet velocities for each flow. Although a few features are not reproduced by this model, it confirms the presence of several dynamical and kinematical asymmetries between opposite sides of the HH 212 bipolar jet. The position-velocity diagrams of both knots exhibit complex dynamics that are broadly consistent with emission from a bow shock and/or jet shock, which does not exclude jet rotation, although a clear signature of jet rotation in HH 212 is missing. Alternative interpretations of the variation of radial velocity across these knots, such as a variation in the jet orientation, as well as for the velocity asymmetries between the flows, are also considered. The presence of a correlation between flow velocity and collimation in each flow is suggested.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 16 page

Talking to the ancestors: national heritage, the Freedom Charter and nation-building in South Africa in 2005

The Freedom Charter has a significant place in South African liberation history. This paper is a re-reading of the document in 21st century conditions and locates its ideas within contexts that have not previously been brought into debate. In particular, it argues that the Freedom Charter is part of national heritage, but of a special kind relating to its being part of a ‘democratic stream’. This is because of its mass democratic mode of creation and resultant product. It also interrogates the notion of ‘The People’ and what ‘The People’ think, bringing into focus unacknowledged knowledge, especially the questions of orality and communication with ancestors. The notion of ‘brotherhood’ as used in the Charter is examined as connoting more than a gender-related concept–a specific way of human beings relating to one another, akin to that of siblings, signifying cooperation rather than individual isolation or competitiveness. This and questions of gender are addressed in the context of nation-building. This paper is a slightly revised version of the Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture delivered in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, 1, 2 and 3 November 2005.

An analysis of the influence exerted by the pharmacist and pharmacy assistant in the purchase decision of health and beauty aid products

[Introduction] The 1980s have ushered in an era of extreme competitive pressure for the modern business organisation. In previous times many business organisations have succeeded simply because of the excellence of their products, with little concern or attention being paid to the wants and needs of potential customers. As the business environment has become more competitive, however, the point of focus has changed. There is ample evidence which suggests a correlation between success in business and firms which have adopted a marketing-orientated philosophy of business. The evolution of marketing as a discipline has been hastened in recent times by the need of the firm to survive in the face of increasing competition. This "increasing attention" is occurring because of the realisation that sheer product excellence alone will not necessarily mean that the firm will succeed in establishing a group of satisfied customers in the long term. It is the adoption of the so-called "marketing concept" which provides the opportunity for the firm to develop a competitive edge which will more likely eventuate in success